Green beans and butternut squash potential health risk: Can a Listeria Lawyer Help You? Select bags of Marketside brand green beans and butternut squash may be contaminated with listeria monocytogenes, potentially causing a health risk for anyone who consumes them. Southern Specialties Inc., based in Pompano Beach, Florida, has recalled the produce after being notified by a raw material supplier that a routine test of a food contact surface tested positive for listeria. Surfaces that come in contact with food, either in the processing or preparation phase, can cause cross-contamination if they are not free from infectious bacteria.Southern Specialties is working with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the possible health risk involved in the produce. The company has recalled all products that were repacked at its facility on the same contaminated repacking line as the supplier’s product. Even though Southern Specialties was able to retrieve much of the potentially contaminated green beans and butternut squash, some was still shipped to retail stores. The produce was shipped to one retail distribution center which then shipped, on February 17, 2019, to stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Recalled products that may have reached retail stores and that may be in consumers’ homes include the following Marketside brands:

Bagged Green Beans, 32oz. (2 LB) 907g, UPC 681131457385 and best if used by date of MAR-9-2019

Bagged Green Beans, 12 oz. (340g), UPC 681131328869 and best if used by MAR-8-2019

Consumers are warned not to eat any of the green beans or butternut squash that may be contaminated. Listeria monocytogenes is an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Even healthy individuals may suffer short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea. For more information about Listeria, or to speak to a Listeria lawyer, call 1-888-335-4901